Sandy Oaks isn't put on map

The City Council has denied a South Bexar County community's request to incorporate as a 4-square-mile town with 3,800 people and three commercial businesses, saying it essentially would compete with San Antonio's economic interests.

Instead, the body voted nearly unanimously to offer Sandy Oaks incorporation as a 2.4-square-mile city, without the businesses at the northeast corner of Loop 1604 and Interstate 37 — an unlikely option, advocates said.

The vote gives the would-be city permission to request an election from Bexar County within 18 months.

“We're no fools. We need a commercial tax base,” said Pedro Orduno, chairman of the Committee to Incorporate Sandy Oaks (CISO). “The seventh-largest city is afraid of us? We're going to hinder their growth?”

He added that the committee wouldn't seek to incorporate at 2.4 square miles because, without a commercial tax base, the city wouldn't be economically viable.

Mayor Julián Castro said he opposed the incorporation because he wanted San Antonio to be able to control its own growth.

“I believe that San Antonio should not go the way of cities like Dallas and become land-locked in the future, so I've said that very consistently through the years,” Castro said. “My general inclination is San Antonio needs ... not to be landlocked in the future.”

Most other council members followed suit. Councilwoman Ivy Taylor was absent and Councilman Diego Bernal was the sole dissenter.

“The request runs counter to the future financial interest of the city,” Councilman Rey Saldaña said. “That corridor is hugely responsible for how San Antonio can provide for its residents now, and in the future.”

Art Martinez de Vara, mayor of Von Ormy, has been helping the CISO through the incorporation process and said that now he'll be looking into possible legal action regarding due process.

CISO filed its request to incorporate in March 2012, but the city put the process on hold while it continued to revise San Antonio's annexation policies. Those were adopted this spring, and the Sandy Oaks process was restarted in May.

“The fact that the city stopped consideration of their application for over a year, for the sole purpose of producing new rules and then retroactively applied them is a due process violation,” Martinez de Vara said.

In the new policies, the city is directed to not allow any municipalities along its borders that would compete with San Antonio, said John Dugan, who heads the department of planning and community development.

“We're not denying or recommending denial of their entire proposal, only the part of it that competes economically with our city,” he said. “And that's our policy.”

While deciding on the fate of Sandy Oaks, the City Council also has been discussing the future of City South.

City staff has recommended the limited-purpose annexation of about 25 square miles of the area, roughly bounded by Loop 410, Loop 1604, Interstate 35 and Interstate 37, which includes the gas station, Burger King and Mr. W Fireworks Stand that Sandy Oaks wanted to support its city. The council will vote on the annexation plan in January.

But residents of Sandy Oaks are not among the 3,000 who would potentially be fully annexed at the end of a three-year limited-purpose annexation, and thus receive full city services.

“The county can't provide their services and the city doesn't want to annex them,” Martinez de Vara said. “Their limited annexation plans are very clear — they don't want the residents of Sandy Oaks. They only want the commercial tax-producing areas, but not the need.”

Eva Ruth Moravec is a freelance reporter who writes about officer-involved shootings of unarmed individuals in Texas for a grant-funded series published in several Texas newspapers. She is also currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. Moravec covered the 2015 Texas legislative session for the Associated Press and has freelanced for local, state and national news outlets, including the New York Times and The Washington Post. Previously, Moravec worked for several years as a staff reporter covering public safety and later government for the San Antonio Express-News. Read her complete series at www.pointofimpacttx.org.